Lt. Gov. Patrick confident Trump will carry Texas

As Democrats vow to turn Texas blue, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said he isn’t worried about President Donald Trump’s reelection odds in the Lone Star State.

“The president will carry Texas. He will carry America,” Patrick told reporters Tuesday after submitting paperwork to put Trump on the Texas Republican primary ballot in March. “In fact, I think he will do even better this time than the victory margin in 2016 for lots of reasons.”

Trump won Texas by 9 points.

Patrick said Trump would win Texas again because of the state’s low unemployment numbers, new manufacturing jobs and strong oil sector.

In fact, Patrick said, Republican candidates in Texas will hurt their election odds if they try to distance themselves from Trump.

“You try to put distance between yourself and the president and you’re running for office: big mistake,” Patrick warned. “Any candidate — any Republican — who distances themselves from the president, is a fool for a candidate because the president is going to carry the Republican Party and carry the state by big numbers.”

Patrick’s optimism diverges from other state GOP leaders, including Texas House Speaker Dennis Bonnen, R-Lake Jackson, who said this summer, in a secretly recorded conversation, that Trump is “killing us in urban and suburban districts.”

In a University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll released last month, Trump was leading several Democratic candidates, but a slight majority of Texas voters say they would vote for someone else rather than reelect Trump.

And Gov. Greg Abbott has raised the specter of a Democratic takeover of Texas in fundraising appeals.

“If we don’t rise to meet the challenge, we risk losing the Texas we know and love — for good. And the Democrats think they smell an opportunity,” Abbott wrote in a letter last month to supporters.

Texas Democratic Party Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa pointed to earlier polls that showed a tight race between Trump and several Democratic rivals.

“He’s terrified. Republicans are terrified,” Hinojosa said in a statement Tuesday. “Trump’s failed policies and broken promises are why he will lose. Without Texas, Donald Trump cannot win this election.”